War in religious dimension. Attacks on religion in Crimea and Donbas region.
The Truth Hounds NGO in collaboration with International Renaissance Foundation presents the report "War in religious dimension. Attacks on religion in Crimea and Donbas region" that sets forth new evidence of international crimes in Ukraine, perpetrated by pro-Russian regimes of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk Peoples’ Republic and Russian regime on the Crimean peninsula.
In publishing this Report the Authors aim:
- (a) to provide the public and Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC Prosecutor) with evidence of concrete episodes which qualify as war crimes, namely crimes committed against the religious institutions, ministers of the religions and the believers, and against buildings dedicated to religion;
- (b) to demonstrate the widespread and institutionalized nature of such crimes and their gravity – highlighting that legal requirements for opening a full ICC investigation have been met;
- (c) to urge the ICC Prosecutor to seek authorization for opening a full investigation at the earliest opportunity to ensure accountability and to prevent the loss of key evidence;
- (d) to preserve evidence for future investigations and prosecutions in Ukraine, at the ICC, or in other national or international jurisdictions.
Territories that are out of the Ukrainian government’s control are a place where members of all religions and denominations except the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate are subjected to systematic oppression. Part of the crimes are disguised as campaigns against extremism, part results from authorities’ connivance, and another part is disguised as so-called legislation. Most of the crimes may be qualified as a violation of art. 9 of the European convention on human rights and art. 18 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Filing Parties state that there are substantial grounds to believe that the Russian Federation is responsible for committing and/or ordering and/or conniving at least some of the violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; that includes freedom to change religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.
The allegations set out below are based on witness statements, obtained by the Authors in field missions to Donbas region settlements that lie on the so-called ‘contact line’ and to Crimea, as well as on gathered documents, photographs, investigative reports of international organizations, and Ukrainian civil organizations such as such Center for Civil Liberties (Kyiv), Institute for Religious Freedom (Kyiv), Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, and on open-source materials.
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The research covers events that took place since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation from March 2014 till May 2019 in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine: the Luhansk region, the Donetsk region, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.